Questions Remain Over How Nurse Got Ebola, Refusal to Ban Flights

Questions remain this morning over how a 26-year-old Texas nurse (above) contracted the Ebola virus. CDC Director Tom Frieden said there was a breach of protocol, but officials have not said exactly what occurred.

Nurse Nina Pham was among about 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who were involved in Thomas Eric Duncan's care after he was hospitalized, according to the records. They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness.

The 26-year-old was in his room often from the day he was placed in intensive care until the day before he died last week.

Pham and other health care workers wore protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and face shields — and sometimes full-body suits — when caring for Duncan, but Pham became the first person to contract the disease within the United States.

Her family told Dallas television station WFAA on Monday that she was the health care worker with Ebola. A rector at her family's church, Hung Le, told The Associated Press that Pham's mother told him Pham has the virus.

The Texas Christian University nursing school graduate was monitoring her own temperature and went to the hospital Friday night when she discovered she had a low fever. She was in isolation and in stable condition, health officials said.

By Monday evening, she had received a transfusion of plasma from Kent Brantly, a Texas physician who survived the virus, according to her pastor and the nonprofit medical mission group Samaritan's Purse.

Meantime, there are still questions over why the Obama administration refuses to ban flights into the U.S. from West Africa.

Brit Hume said yesterday that the explanations so far have not made sense, arguing there is some other reason that is not being released publicly.

On "Hannity," Dr. Ben Carson said the administration is not "acting logically," arguing that the virus should never have entered the United States.

Carson said he doesn't know why President Obama said the chance of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. was "extremely low."

"If we got into trying to analyze why he makes various statements that don't seem to be factually based, we could talk for a long time," said Carson, who added that the president "obviously wants things to work out well."

Watch the interview below:

On "Fox and Friends" Tuesday, Dr. David Samadi maintained that there is no medical reason for not banning flights.

"The best way to isolate this disease is right in West Africa. If you contain 70 percent of the disease in West Africa, you can control this disease. Once it's out, once the bird is outside the cage, then you have to start looking for all these cases," he argued.

Samadi also explained that the Ebola virus can mutate and is spreading more and more rapidly in Africa.